Sydney may not have had Brownlow Medal success, but the Swans have had an early grand final week win with coach John Longmire picking up the AFL Coaches Association award for coach of the year.

Longmire won the peer award, the Allan Jeans senior coach of the year award, in only his second year as a senior coach.

He received the award - named after the famous St Kilda and Hawthorn coach who died last year - on Tuesday night, four days before the Swans' appointment at the MCG for the grand final against Hawthorn.

Longmire took over in Sydney from premiership coach Paul Roos for the 2011 season. His team finished seventh and lost to Hawthorn in an elimination final.

Entering 2012, the Swans were not tipped by many pundits to challenge strongly for the flag, but the Sydneysiders had a roaring start to the year, going undefeated until round six when they lost a tight game to Adelaide.

Sydney was 8-3 at the half-way mark, and finished the home and away season with 16 wins, good enough for third spot on the ladder.

The Swans then smashed their two hoodoo sides, Adelaide and Collingwood, in the finals to earn a spot in the club's first grand final since 2006.

But it was the game style, as much as the results, that brought plaudits for Longmire's coaching.

He maintained the core of the hard-running, hard-tackling, defensive-minded style that had been the hallmark of the Swans under Roos, and added an extra attacking dimension.

Longmire introduced a more expansive style of play to make use of the blazing speed of Lewis Jetta and others, and used a range of scoring options from Sam Reid and Adam Goodes to converted defender Lewis Roberts-Thomson and midfielders Kieren Jack and Ben McGlynn.

In other awards announced at the AFLCA ceremony, Richmond's Brownlow Award place-getter Trent Cotchin (107 votes) won the player of the year award by eight votes from Collingwood's Dayne Beams (99), with Gold Coast's Gary Ablett and Adelaide's Patrick Dangerfield (92) in equal third.